Yufeng, Li --- "Copyright Protection in China" [2011] ELECD 841; in Kariyawasam, Rohan (ed), "Chinese Intellectual Property and Technology Laws" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Chinese Intellectual Property and Technology Laws

Editor(s): Kariyawasam, Rohan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800082

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Copyright Protection in China

Author(s): Yufeng, Li

Number of pages: 28

Extract:

4. Copyright protection in China
Li Yufeng1

4.1. CHINESE COPYRIGHT LAW AND THE IMPACT
OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

`Concerns in China over unauthorized copying can be traced back to
the copying of Chinese classics in the Han Dynasty (206 BC­220 AD).'2
However, substantial effort was made to protect copyright in the late
1800s with the coming of the gunboat, opium and extraterritoriality.3
Foreign countries and external pressures have played an important role
in reforming the Chinese system of copyright. From the Opium War
(1840­1842) onwards, the traditional Chinese order was destroyed, and
the economy, politics and culture were in great disorder. In the words of
Li Hongzhang,4 `China saw tremendous changes never before undertaken
in the previous three thousand years'. To save the nation from subjugation
and to ensure its survival, the latter Qing Dynasty began its reforms, one
step of which was to build the Chinese modern legal system. The Western
powers promised that they would give up exterritoriality in China when a
stable legal system was created. The latter Qing initiated its law-making
process to create stability, wealth and power. In this climate, the first copy-
right law, the Great Qing Copyright Law of 1910, was instituted with the
help of foreign exporters. However, it didn't take root in China on account
of decades of war, famine and revolution.5


1 Ph.D. in Law, Professor at Southwest University of Political Science and

Law in the People's Republic of China ( ...